A mega-episode here today to celebrate the NATF workshop down in West Plains, Missouri, and then moving on to our focus on this year’s Ogle and Mark Time winners.

Lance Axt, man of many hats, introduces us to several personalities at NATF and gives us flavor of the workshop. We look into the #NATF feed that’s going out on Twitter. And hey! If you’re reading this on June 26, 2009, you can catch the live NATF show on their live stream. Click here to tune in at 8:30 EDT.

Following that up is Roger Gregg’s “The Return of the Bogman Mummy,” produced in tandem with the Gaiety School of Acting. It won the Silver Mark Time Award this year, and as far as I know, Radio Drama Revival is the only place to find it right now!

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Radio Drama Revival – Episode 128

Next week: an encore presentation of Waiting for a Window and then my interviews with Great Northern Audio Theater guys, Brian Price and Jerry Stearns.

This week we continue our focus on artists who have been involved with the National Audio Theater Festivals, the upcoming week-long workshop dedicated to audio drama located in West Plains, Missouri.

This week’s drama is a feature produced by Lance Axt, the de facto voice of NATF on the LinkedIn and Facebook social networks and a hell of an audio talent and producer. The story is by Elizabeth Benjamin. “The Field” tells the story of a couple in a haunted house in the West where Native Americans unearth a sordid history… Listen on for a well crafted story of the supernatural.

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Radio Drama Revival Episode 124 – The Field by Play it By Ear Productions

This week we talk to Dianne Ballon, a Maine-based sound artist and audio educator who came down as a live guest to WMPG in Portland, Maine, where Radio Drama Revival originates. We talk about Dianne’s experience both as a participant and instructor at the National Audio Theater Festivals, held each June in West Plains, Missouri… Which means this thing is coming up soon! This June 21-27, to be exact.

Landing helicopters, strange sound effects, field recording, oh my! Learn about the great audio community that congregates in the Ozarks and hear why one sound artist makes the pilgrimage from Maine to the Midwest each summer.

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Radio Drama Revival Episode 123 – Interview with Dianne Ballon

P.S. If you’re a listener of this show and are inspired to attend NATF, mention that you heard about the festival on the show and you can still get the early-bird special rate of $425 to attend. But register soon! You’ll need to book flights, too, right?

Register Form (PDF): http://www.natf.org/atw2009/NATF_2009_ATW_Application.pdf

I can’t believe? I haven’t posted about this yet, but the time is fast approaching for the National Audio Theater Festivals‘ weeklong audio drama workshop.

If you’re new to audio drama production or want to amp up your skills, you won’t find a better environment than in this intense week of audio goodness.? West Plains, Missouri might not look like much on the map, but it draws a great crowd of audio folks, young and old, amateur and vets, with the shared passion of this “not dead yet!” medium.

I attended the conference in 2007, and you can get a taste of what it’s like by seeing my RDR exclusive coverage.

Particularly exciting this year is an Edgar Allan Poe adaptation workshop lead by Bill Dufris and Lance Axt, especially exciting because it’ll be available for newcomers.? Don’t miss an opportunity to work with two extremely talented people!

Early Bird Discount only lasts to this Friday, so check out the website and download the application today.? If you do miss the special, you’ve got until June 1 to lock in an application rate of $575.

I’m behind the curve on this, but I’d be dreadfully remiss if I didn’t put a shout-out for the National Audio Theater Festivals‘ week long summer audio drama workshop. I won’t be there this year, but my god, and I’m kinda wishing I was.

For example, listen to this juicy bit from their website:

Workshops lead by Dr. Hugh Morgan Hill, known throughout the world as Brother Blue. He is called by many the worlds’ greatest storyteller. He says he wants his stories “?to be bread for the mind, the imagination, the heart, the soul?.” He says, “I speak my stories from the middle of the middle of me to the middle of the middle of you.”

I would LOVE to become a better storyteller — you know, the kind of yarn you can just start spinning without any pre-scripting — and so meeting Dr. Hill sounds like one killer opportunity.

I would ALSO love to meet (face-to-face) Sam Mowry of the Willamette Radio Workshop — he, and Cynthia McGean, who runs the “Writers on the Air” workshop and blog — will be at NATF to run workshops in their respective areas of strength.

Gosh, and that’s only the beginning… There’s Cowboy Poetry, Shakespeare, and hey, did I mention the fact that you get to be personally involved in the production of a live feature-length audio play put together in less than a week’s time?

If you’re serious about this audio drama thing, and you haven’t made it out to West Plains yet, now’s the time. Check out the NATF website to make it happen!

P.S. You can also check out my coverage from last year’s workshop.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the upcoming deadline for the National Audio Theater Festival’s Script Contest.? November 15 is the postmarked-by date for entries in what is likely the biggest script contest for audio theater, with a critics from the finest ranks of the artform and great prizes such as a sizable chunk of change (up to $400) and free participation in the NATF conference (a damn good time, if I write so myself).

I’m going to earnestly try to get an entry in this year, though with this incredible Halloween event coming up, my time will be scarce to really craft an excellent entry.? What incredible Halloween event, you ask?? Stayed tuned for more details.